Note: There's a couple of misspellings, but I'm too tired to fix them tonight. I'll get to work on them tomorrow.

It's another illustrated guide I made in between all of my classes (if my laptop screen had a higher resolution, I would be making DitR at school, but I don't, so I can't).

Also check out ~Kigurou-Enkou's follow-up guide regarding proper use of backstory: [link]And check out this awesome guide by ~Rumiflan regarding relatives of characters: [link]

OC concepts not addressed in the comic (more added based on your comments):-Once you understand the logic behind these principles, you are clear to bend/break them. For example, once you understand the difficulty of writing a relative of a canon character and how storytelling applies to the concept, you are clear to write a relative for a canon character.-Don't give your characters inappropriate names like Sara Hakurei or Smith Morichika. Look up Japanese naming conventions here: [link]-Don't be afraid to make Western-style youkai. Rumia, Letty (despite being a traditional snow woman youkai), and much of the SDM crew are good examples.-Develop different characters for different types of series. The traits that go into an episodic character are different than that which go into a gag series character.-You can be a half-whatever if you can give a logical explanation. The examples in Trap 2 are just to show multiple incarnations of the same person.-It's acceptable to make a character similar to you, and you can even make a version of yourself that could survive in Gensokyo (a slightly more badass version of yourself), but you eventually reach a line between minor tweaking and pure wish fulfillment. Finding this balance depends on your storytelling abilities.

Hey Spaz, after reading this amusing comic, I would like you to check my OC to see if it's a good one... when it'll be ready.For now, let's just say that you can tell by the avatar pic. Well, it's just that I don't want my character to be trash.

Thank you Mr. Spaztique for the guide!Although I do have a question: What are the possible effects of your OC's gender on interaction? I'm kinda having a hard time picking out a gender (and I managed to write a chapter already...)Thanks again!

I personally don't think it matters, but there's this idea of "masculine" and "feminine" communication and thinking styles. However, there are men with feminine communication/thinking styles and women with masculine communication/thinking styles, not to mention the idea that we need both feminine and masculine traits to balance ourselves out.

The theory runs like this: the biochemistry of a masculine brain runs on linear logic, breaks things into small steps, and says exactly what it means. The biochemistry of the feminine brain runs on holistic, intuitive, big-picture thinking, and communicates with subtext and emotion rather than raw words. Relationship counselor Dr. John Gray wrote a classic book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, covering this idea extensively.

Thank you very much! Although I do have another question...I read in another guide about OC's not stealing the spotlight. Would a story told from OC's perspective (in first person) violate that guideline?

The idea is that if you're going to do a fic in any series, the emphasis is on the series. It is possible to tell a story in first person without it stealing the spotlight from other characters: first person stories are filled with memorable characters. Look at any visual novel, such as Fate/Stay Night or the like, and although it's told from the perspective of one character, we get to see all of them equally.

First person is usually difficult for beginners because they tend to focus more of the perspective character than the others. The mark of somebody who's mastered first person is their ability to write for all characters equally.

Idk if someone is still checking characters around here, but i still want to tryginthewerewolf.deviantart.com/…candidato someone Telles if my char is alright, it's still Wip, which is the reason it still colorless

Ugh. I have a general idea for a 'Youkai of Voids/Zero', but aside from the appearance, personality and basic abilities, I have no idea what to do with them. They're not a blood relative or 'archnemesis' of any sorts, at least. In fact, I have no intention of having them preemptively acquainted with any canon characters.

A little worried about them being overpowered since there's a lot of cheap tricks they could pull off with that kind of power, too... Perhaps I'll have to think of some kind of nerf that limits their power.

If you'd be willing to help me work on them, send me a message. Thanks.

Principle 11 should answer this: story trumps how powerful your character is. Your character may have tons of cheap tricks, but so can your characters' opponents. There's also Principle 4: give your character not just a strength (that affects other people), but a weakness (that affects other people). If your character has some cheap powers, but something to blunt their effectiveness like hubris, paranoia, or whatever, use it to balance the character. This way, you won't need to nerf anyone.

Besides, I've never seen nerfing work. Ever. All stories have a balance: the stronger the goodest good guy, the stronger the baddest bad guy must become. If the balance is off-kilter, like a character has too much ease in the story and the villains are too weak, it doesn't matter how much you nerf them if the storytelling is off: the weaker the overpowered hero, the weaker the underpowered villains become. I've seen situations where characters who had godlike powers were stripped of said godlike powers, yet was able to get away with anything they wanted without their powers because the writers didn't want them to lose/face conflict. I've also seen many great situations where characters were given cheat-like abilities, so the situations got worse to adapt to them, equaling the balance.

I'm thinking of maybe adding another principle: the principles are also useless if you do not practice. Test your character out in a few one-shots and get a feel for it. Naturally, you will receive criticism: use it. Nothing will give you experience more than using your bad reviews.

I have a question regarding OC strength. If I created an OC with full intent of them being stronger than most/all other characters, would it still be a "good" OC if I made another OC(s) of equal/more strength to counter-act the first OC (Like a teacher, rival, etc.)? I'm not exactly making a Touhou story, but the OC rules remain the same... I think, so I'd just like to know.

It follows the same concept of "never make your character so powerful that they cannot easily attain their goal instantly". In this case, even if they beat the first character, they still have a long way to go to get to their main goal. There are plenty of stories where the hero beats a character early on; these are often the mentor characters trying to train the main character for their upcoming journey, to which they will be facing much bigger opponents.

This is a matter of principle 11: storytelling is more important in this context. Pace out the level of conflict they must face, and their early victories will seem like a calm before the storm/preparation for upcoming conflicts.

I'm glad you made this guide, I am new to walfas and made some Touhou OC's but I was nervous that some could see them as Mary Sues. This guide will be a big help for me in case my characters do turn out to be Mary Sues so thank you very much.

Well, Ran Yakumo (Yukari's servant) is a nine-tailed youkai fox (a kitsune), but if you make your character different enough from Ran it should be all right. There's no law against there being more than one of a certain type of youkai (unless the OC is just a knockoff of an existing character).

My oc's Stories(mainly my oc sora's) are still mainly works in progress cause I have occasional writers block when I get the best of ideas. Any advice? (Sora's the touhou oc and hika's more a crossoverish oc)

Not if you can't find the right accessories for the rest of the costume to make them unique. A number of PC-98 characters wore red robes, and a number of Windows characters have red dresses. You can pull it off.

Well, they usually try and be a little social, but sometimes come off as rather odd, so they are a bit of a social outcast, so she usually only communicates with her friend, Harugasumi (A bat youkai). Despite the fact that they're a swallow youkai, they're not very good at singing. Their spell cards are somewhat simple and based around stars and astrology, much like Marisa, but not enough to be copying her.

From what I have read based on your guide, it seems that I have broke a lot of the principles, especially principles 2, and a lot more. I currently have two fics, which I am having second thoughts if I should re-write or just make another one.

...Your guide is great! It actually does point out each flaw often encountered concerning OC's not only found in Touhou fanfics, but also on other series. Apparently, my OC's have these flaws...

I just hope that I won't end up with the same mistake again, now that I have some pointers to watch out for when making Touhou OC's as well as OC's from other series'.

It's not a matter of "breaking" them. The classic proverb goes: "A rule says, 'You must do it this way.' A principle says, 'This works and has through all recorded time.'" This guide is about principles: it is possible write a good OC with bad design, who is closely tied to another character, has a ton of canon characters as friends, uses a sword, has a military tile, can beat the most powerful character blindfolded in a scene, has a ton of powers, an elaborate costume, and is based entirely on the author...

... just as long as it follows Principle 11. Now that is a rule: storytelling abilities trump how well you design the characters that go into it.